what should I do?
paint the M1A1 tank w/o wheels and then paint the wheels seperately, or paint tem together?
remember, the tires for the wheels are hard to paint[:(]
I paint the wheels seperatly from the hull, try using a circle template available at most craft stores. It will make the job much easier… I’ve tried a few different ways but this works best for me.
HTH,
Jeff
Well you’ll get a bunch of ways to do this,mine isn’t necessarily the way you’ll do it, listen to all then make up you mind. If you put the wheels on,then the area behind the wheels and under the fenders don’t get the paint needed. So what I do is paint the wheels seperatly, paint the hull especially lower hull and under the fenders. Add wheels then and you can blend things in. Jost my [2c] Others will come in with some great ideas. Be patient you’ll find the answer you want shortly
Good luck and let us see what you have done
Ken
Yeah, paint the wheels seperate from the hull.
[#ditto]
the circle template works great.
I always paint the wheels off the vehicle, hand paint the rubber portions, then mate the wheels to said vehicle. Frankly, how you would go about painting the tires while the wheels are on the vehicle is beyond my comprehension.
I paint my seperate, then take a fine line sharpie marker and go around the hub a few times. Then go with one of those big markers and do the rest of the tire. Now it will look all shiny and funny, but as soon as you dry brush (with dark gray) and flat coat it looks perfect. A huge time saver
Separate. One thing i’ll add is to put very tiny tiny pieces of masking tape on the wheel holes and struts before painting. That way the glue wont be interfered with by the paint when you glue the wheels to the hull.
You know, this reminds me of an odd occurence. Last weekend I went to Michael’s to buy a circle template. I found a plastic circle shaped one, roughly 25cm by 25cm, the larger of the two they offered, for around $10 CAD. It had, I thought, every size I’d need. I started building my sd.kfz 251 ausf c, the new 3-in-1 kits, and not surprisingly, not one of those circles fit the 251 wheels properly. Explain that one to me [:P]
I always do my wheels seperately. I stick them all onto several strips of masking tape with the backside facing up, build the lower hull, upper hull and turret as seperate assemblies (leaving off any parts that are not being done in the base/camo colors such as tools and equipment). Then I airbrush them all at the same time. After a day or so of drying I flip the wheels over on the masking tape strips so that now the outside is facing up, spray the other side of the wheels and put a second coat on the other major assemblies.
After waiting for a couple days for them to dry I use an indelible ink marker (like a sharpie) and use that to “paint” the wheels… it’s very easy and looks great!
Then I put the wheels on the lower hull per the instructions, combine the assemblies and then paint and add all the other parts. In theory you could hammer out one kit in a week or two with that sysem as the assembly of the major components can be done in one day.
When I build mine, I painted the wheels on the tank, but I with I painted them before I put them on though, so I had an easier time working aroung the wheels.
I paint my wheels on the project
OK